We have a new addition to the family!

We have been spending the past couple of weeks looking into lots of different types of trucks. There seems to be generally 3 different sizes: small, medium, large. We looked at a few small Ford Ranger pickups: two-seaters, no extended cab, but seemed pretty tough for what we would need them to do. The large trucks (your Toyota Tundras, Chevy Silverados, Dodge Rams, etc.) just seemed too big for us. Too much truck. So we were looking at mainly Toyota Tacomas and Nissan Frontiers, both nice medium-sized trucks with good ratings. Tacomas are just freaking expensive. What we discovered was that Tacomas and Frontiers are pretty comparable as far as quality and reliability, just that Frontiers are 20-30% less expensive. We also discovered, for some reason, that most used Tacomas for sale are all BRICK RED. There’s nothing more annoying than a red vehicle, unless you’re a fire engine. So we went the Frontier route.

We ended up going up to Denver to purchase him; finding a decent price on a truck in our little town is next to impossible. Sticker shock is actually a thing. So, while we did get a decent price for how nice he is, it is still quite a lot of money. It took about a day and lots of beer and whiskey for the shock to wear off. So much for being out of debt for awhile… but… totally worth it. R gave him the big masculine name Maximus. It seems to fit.

Just a small list of all the cool things we can accomplish now (and easier) with Maximus on board: hauling firewood, water, lumber, panels, dirt, dog runs, duck kennels, 50 lb bags of dog and duck food, in addition to, 4-wheeling, driving in mud, snow, rain, and terribly-maintained dirt roads, conquering the 2 miles of steep, windy dirt road to our cabin, impressing the neighbors, looking like we belong now, things like that. And he is, like we thought, a perfect size. The other day at work I parked Maximus next to a Tundra, and stood back and looked. Our little truck looked nice and tucked away in the parking spot, while the Tundra is packing the space and sticking out. Even has a full backseat and windows for Loki to stick his head out. We made the right choice.